Voicemail systems for recording and playing voice messages over the telephone are well known. Voicemail system allows a caller to leave a voice message for a person when the person does not answer the telephone. Frequently, calls are not answered because the person receiving the call is already on the telephone, the telephone is turned off, or the person receiving the call is away from the telephone.
The recorded message can be listened to at a later time, when the recipient is available and willing to hear the message. Thus, voicemail systems provide a convenient way for people to communicate with one another.
The main interface of a voice mail system is the Telephony User Interface (TUI). A voicemail user, such as the person leaving a message or a person listening to a message, interacts with the TUI by pressing buttons on the keypad of a telephone so as to communicate dual-tone multiple-frequency (DTMF) tones to the TUI. These DTMF events are provided in response to voice prompts provided by the TUI. For example, the TUI may provide a voice prompt stating “Please enter you password.” In response, the user may enter a password by pressing the appropriate buttons on the keypad of a telephone.
It is desirable to test such TUI's, so as to ensure that they respond properly to the DTMF events. Frequently, there are a plurality of voice prompts that can be provided by the TUI, as well as a plurality of possible DTMF responses to each voice prompt. It is important that the TUI respond properly to each of the possible DTMF events communicated thereto. However, manually testing a TUI, such as via the use of a telephone, is an undesirably labor intensive and costly task. Also, the regression testing of a TUI as and when new features are added to it becomes even more costly without some sort of test automation.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a method and system for automating the testing TUI's, such that the testing is less labor intensive and costly.
Embodiments of the present invention and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures.